Presentation of Vojvodina

Vojvodina (21,506 sq. km; 2,031,992 inhabitants in
2002; capital, Novi Sad) is a region in northern Serbia with the status of Autonomous province.
Vojvodina is situated in the southern part of the
Central Danube Plain and includes some of the richest
agricultural land in former Yugoslavia.

The Slavic peoples have settled in Vojvodina during
the 6th century. In the late 9th century, Magyar
Hungarians settled in Vojvodina and the area became
part of the Kingdom of Hungary. The area was conquered
by the Ottoman Empire in the mid-15th century together with most of Hungarian territory, to be partly
liberated by Austria (which has already ruled the rest
of Hungary) in 1683-1699 and completely in 1716-1718.

The Serb population was much increased by emigrants
from Balkans during the Ottoman conquering and also by
immigration during the Ottoman rule over the area. In
1690, numerous Serbs migrated into the area from
territories to the south occupied by the Ottoman
Empire and were granted a large personal autonomy in
exchange for obligation of serving in the Habsburg
army. When the Ottoman Empire ceased to be the threat
to the Habsburg lands, Serbs faced growing pressure to
be deprived of their status and turned into serfs,
along with the pressures for their conversion to
Catholicism and for Hungarization. They opposed this
by demanding a self-governing crown land, which they
founded during the revolution in 1848 - Serbian
Voivodeship (Serbian, Srpska Vojvodina; German,
Serbische Wojwodschaft). In 1863, the Serbian
Voivodeship was abolished by the Emperor (who was its
Grand Voivode) and previous boundaries between
Hungary (Bačka and Banat) and Croatia (Srem) were reestablished. In 1918, Vojvodinian regions declared unification with Serbia (Srem - on
24 November 1918, Bačka and Banat - on 25 November 1918) and
subsequently became part of the Kingdom of Serbs,
Croats and Slovenes, later Yugoslavia.

During the Second World War, Bačka was assigned to
Hungary, Srem to the Axis puppet Independent State of Croatia, and Banat was nominally governed by the Axis puppet government of Serbia, the real power being in the hands of the local German minority leaders, who
made it a separate territory in most regards and
planned to make it the core of a separate German
state. After liberation in 1945, Vojvodina was
proclaimed an autonomous province within Serbia. Since
then, its autonomy was enlarged several times until
1974, when it was made an almost separate territory.
In 1989, most of statehood-like features of the
autonomy were abolished. The autonomy was more
narrowed in 1990 by the then adopted Constitution of
Serbia, which also contained backdoors that enabled
reduction of the autonomy to a formality in the
following years. While the reductions of autonomy in
1989 passsed with large support of the citizens (due
to their dissatisfaction with provincial Communist
government, which they had previously forced to resign
in 1988) and those in 1990 without much opposing,
later reductions caused growing pressure for
restoration of a real autonomy. After the regime
change in 2000, the autonomy was returned to its
nominal constitutional level by the so-called
"omnibus-law" in 2001. The status of Vojvodina will
eventually be determined by the new Constitution of
Serbia, whose preparing is currently under way.

The present population of Vojvodina is very mixed,
mostly as the result of planned immigrations in the
18th century and after both World Wars. The land is
populated with Serbs, Hungarians, Croats, Slovaks,
Romanians, Ruthenians, Montenegrins, Macedonians,
Germans, Ukrainians, Czechs and many others, the total
number of nationalities being more than twenty. It
shall also be noted that many people never declare
belonging to any nationality during the census, being
of mixed origin or simply not caring for national
affiliation.

Reporter magazine, #247, p. 20;
Belgrade, 14 January 2003 (information on
number of inhabitants in 2002 and their nationalities)

Vojvodina Microsoft® Encarta®
98 Encyclopedia

Tomislav Todorović*, Željko Heimer & Uros Žižmund, 25 April 2005

*I found no sources for the history
of Vojvodina after 1980, but wrote it all by myself as
the witness of those events. I did my best to be
politically neutral and stick to the facts which can
be confirmed, although it is rather difficult to
achieve this in present-day Serbia.

Tomislav Todorović, 25 April 2005

Flag of Vojvodina

Decision on the flag

The flag of Vojvodina is prescribed by Decision Odluka o zastavi Autonomne Pokrajine Vojvodine, adopted on 27 February 2004, published in Službeni list Autonomne Pokrajine Vojvodine 2/04 in Novi Sad on 2 March 2004, and valid on 10 March 2004.
The following translation of the official document was made by Željko Heimer and reviewed by Christopher Southworth. The original document was kindly provided by Jos Poels.

Based on the Article 21(2) of the Statutes of the Autonomous Region of Vojvodina (SL APV 17/91) and Article 1 in the Recommendations of
the Commission for the preparation of a Decision on the symbols of
the Autonomous Region of Vojvodina (SL APV 15/2003),

The Assembly of the Autonomous Region of Vojvodina, in its session
held on 27 February 2004, (hereby) adopts the

Decision on the Flag of the Autonomous Region of Vojvodina

Article 1. This Decision determines the flag of the Autonomous
Region of Vojvodina and prescribes the protocol on use of the flag.

Article 2. The flag of the Autonomous Region of Vojvodina, the
territorial autonomy in the Republic of Serbia, the modern European
region and a member of the Assembly of European Regions consists of three colours, red, blue and white arranged horizontally
in proportions of 1:8:1. In the middle of the blue field there are
three yellow stars set in a circle. The ratio of the width to the
length of the flag is 1:2. The flag is double-sided bearing the same
design on the both sides.

Article 3. The flag of the Autonomous Region of Vojvodina is
displayed in the shape determined by this Decision, according to this
Decision, other regulations and the customary protocols, in a way
that does not degrade the reputation and the dignity of the
Autonomous Region of Vojvodina.

Article 4. The flag of the AR Vojvodina is displayed together with the flag of the Republic of Serbia when it is so determined by the
Law or other regulations that prescribe the display of the flag of
the republic of Serbia.
The flag of the AR Vojvodina shall not be used if it is damaged or
if its appearance is unsuitable for use.

Article 5. During the sessions of the Assembly of the AR Vojvodina, the flag of the AR Vojvodina is displayed alone on the buildings in which the sessions of the Assembly of the AR Vojvodina and of the
Executive Council of the AR Vojvodina are held, and in the halls in
which the sessions of the Assembly of the AR Vojvodina and the
sessions of the Executive Council of AR Vojvodina are held.
On the territory of the AR Vojvodina the flag of the AR Vojvodina
may be displayed alone, (and may) be displayed in public meetings,
assemblies, ceremonies and other public gatherings at which the AR
Vojvodina is represented.
The flag of the AR Vojvodina shall be displayed in those official
halls used by the Chairman of the Assembly of the AR Vojvodina and
(of) the chairman of the Executive council of the AR Vojvodina, and
may be displayed also in other official halls of the Assembly of the
AR Vojvodina and (of) the Executive Council of the AR Vojvodina.

Article 6. The etalon (original) of the flag of the AR Vojvodina is preserved in the Assembly of the AR Vojvodina, and flags manufactured
and in use must be made according to it.

Article 7. The flag of the AR Vojvodina shall not be permitted to
touch the ground; it shall not be used as base, support, table
covering, curtain or similar.
The flag shall not be used to cover vehicles or other objects, and
shall not be used to decorate conference tables or rostrums except in
the form of a table flag.
If the flag is displayed on a rostrum it shall be set on a staff on
the speaker's right side or on the wall behind the speaker so that
the speaker does not shield it.

Article 8. This Decision will become valid upon the eighth day
following publication in the Službeni list Autonomne Pokrajine Vojvodine.

Adoption process of the flag

According to Dnevnik, the flag of Vojvodina was adopted on 27 February 2004 with 79 votes for, 13 against (representatives of DSS) and 5 abstentions (Liberali Srbije and former Social-Democrats).

The adoption process of the flag of Vojvodina is described in
Dnevnik
(article by B.D. Savić).

The Regional Parliament received the design proposals
for the flag and the anthem of Vojvodina "Ode of Joy" and the Serb
tricolour with three stars - in the middle of the blue field there
shall be three stars symbolizing the three parts of Vojvodina: Bačka, Banat and Srem.
The Statutory Commission of the Vojvodina Parliament adopted the
design proposals for the flag and the anthem of Vojvodina and
forwarded them for adoption in the Regional Parliament. A member of
the Commission, Aleksandar Kravić said in an interview that the
proposals had been adopted unanimously with only one abstention of
the representative of Democratic Party of Serbia, while all others were in favor.
According to him, the flag of Vojvodina shall be the tricolour,
based on the Serb flag (red-blue-white), with the middle blue field
being enlarged and containing in its center three yellow stars
symbolizing the three parts of Vojvodina, Srem, Banat and Bačka. The parliamentaries shall also receive the proposal of the anthem, the
"Ode of Joy" by Beethoven, that is already the European anthem.
"The three Serb colours symbolize the connection of Vojvodina with
Serbia, while the three stars symbolize the connection with the
European Union and the European orientation of Vojvodina" explained
Kravić.
The designs of the flag and the anthem of Vojvodina were made my
the Regional Commission, composed of a Chairman and Vice Chairmen of
the Vojvodina Parliament. On the proposals shall be decided on the
parliamentary session on 27 February, and it may be assumed that
they shall gain the majority support, if the Representatives of the
three leading parties in Vojvodina government -
Democratic Party,
League of Socialdemocrats and the
Union of Vojvodina Hungarians -
shall vote as their Representatives in the Statutory Commission.
The adoption of the anthem and the flag should finalize the
symbols of Vojvodina, after the previous adoption of the
coat of arms on 27 June 2002. This
decision was then voted for by 68 of 120 Representatives, the votes
against were from the DSS, with abstentees from the New Democracy
(now the Liberals of Serbia) and the Vojvodina Coalition. The regional coat of arms was voted for after the initiative by the Chairman of the Regional Parliament, Nenad Čanak.
Since the adoption, the coat of arms of Vojvodina is in
prerogative use within the seals of all the regional bodies, on the
official inscriptions on the buildings of the regional bodies and the
bodies of the local administration, and on the charters and other
public acknowlegments of the Region.

Željko Heimer, 18 February 2004

Perception of the flag

According to an article in Vjesnik (Zagreb, Croatia) dated 6 March 2004, the newly adopted flag of Vojvodina and the slightly older coat of arms might be expecting a short life.
Namely, it is said in the article that the emblems were adopted by
the current Parliament of Vojvodina that is soon due to reelection.
It is considered by many that the current Parliament has no longer popular
support, and that the newly elected Parliament would be
more "pro-Serbian" and much less "pro-regional", and might easily
revoke the adopted symbols. The recently elected right-winged
government of Serbia has a poor opinion of the current Parliament,
and expects to gain support in the new elections in Vojvodina, too.
The current Vojvodina Parliament is therefore said to have adopted the
symbols in a desperate move to retain even a symbolic autonomy, that might be suppressed after the elections.

Anyway, it seems that the new symbols were not favorably perceived
in Belgrade. The article quotes the two pejorative nicknames given
to the coat of arms and the flag. The flag is called salveta (a
tissue, a napkin), while the coat of arms is called kod dva piva
(at two beers'). This last is supposedly to sound like a name of a pub
or similar, and the reference is to the lion and the deer. I suppose
that the two charges recall two popular beer brands. I would take care regarding these nicknames - it may well be that they are kind of invented by journalists for the sake of making the story more juicy.

Željko Heimer, 6 March 2004

When the new flag was hoisted in front of the Vojvodina Parliament in Novi Sad, angry people burned it in riots on streets, saying that the only legitimate flag in Vojvodina was the Serbian flag.

Miloš Djurić, 22 March 2004

Historical flag of Vojvodina (1848)

On 23 June 2002, the newspaper Dnevnik reported the flag granted in 1848 by the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the Serbian Duke Supljikac.
On the obverse, the flag is yellow with a black double-headed Austro-Hungarian eagle. Below the eagle is written in Cyrillic letters: Carsko i kraljevsko vojvodstvo srpsko, Tzar and Kingdom's Serbian Vovodship.
On the reverse, the flag is blue with St. George in a non-combat
position and a border made of red-blue-white triangles.

The name "Vojvodina" in Serbian simply
means "voivodship" (a type of duchy). Its original historical name
(from 1848) was the "Serbian Voivodship" (Serbian Vojvodina), but
since Vojvodina is now a part of Serbia, there is no need for the
prefix "Serbian" anymore. On rare occasions, the Serbian language
uses two more varieties of the word Vojvodina, namely Vojvodovina and
Vojvodstvo.

Milan Jovanović, 18 May 2007

According to Dnevnik, the replica of the 1848 flag was made after an exhibition in the Musuem of Vojvodina where the original is kept, and was used "for the last two months", and presumably, some time afterwards the article was written, as "decorative element" (say some) in the assembly hall of the Vojvodina Parliament, beside the flags of Serbia and Yugoslavia of the period.

Željko Heimer, 18 May 2007

An incomplete image of the obverse of this flag - the "wolf teeth" bordure is all around - is shown on Wikimedia Commons.